MAVS NEWS:

[KillerLeft]

I don't know how it shakes out, but I feel like Cuban really does love this team and it pains him to see it in such shambles. Yes he hired Nico, so he has to carry at least part of the responsibility for the bad decisions of the last year or so. But I also think that he would not have allowed the gutting and dismissive behavior toward the medical and support staff, which I think has contributed to the current situation. So, like with most things, it's a mixed bag. We all wanted Cuban to sit down and shut up sometimes, but you didn't doubt his love of the team.

Mixed bag is a great way to put it. 

Yes, he hired Harrison, but it was to be the "NBA relationship" arm of a front office Cuban, himself, planned to continue running. Harrison was intended to be additive in an area Cuban had self diagnosed as a weakness of his front office, but not an actual GM, as we understand the term. As with all things Cuban, this is simultaneously a reasonable logic to defend the decision and a huge problem, as THAT was an opportunity to actually FIX the front office (kind of like the one they have right now) and they obviously failed to do so. Cuban's inability to TRULY see why his approach was ultimately unsuccessful is and will probably always be why he can't/wouldn't be able to make this team what we here all want it to be. 

I'm torn, because I do think there's something to the idea that we're better off as fans if the owner is actually one of us: another passionate fan. However, I still remember how hopeless it was all feeling towards the end of his stewardship, and how strongly I felt that the hopelessness was his fault. I honestly don't care about the Adelsons' politics (or Cuban's, for that matter). I just want ownership with: 1) a strong will to compete, 2) deep enough pockets and enough resourcefulness for that will to matter and 3) the knowledge that the endeavor must include leadership from a person or (ideally) persons whose entire lives have been spent studying BASKETBALL. From my seat, it appears Cuban only has 1/3 covered, though his investor partners could potentially change the equation some.

More than anything, I just have Mavs crisis fatigue. It feels like we've been bouncing from one to the next since that sexual harassment stuff in the front office years ago, and that the franchise has been fairly unserious ever since. I don't know how much more of this I can stomach. More and more each day, I'm becoming convinced the team is about to botch this latest opportunity to put a serious front office in place and empower them to act. I hope I'm wrong.